• Noh: 松虫、浮舟、乱 (Matsumushi, Ukifune, Midare)

9/9/18 (Sun), National Noh Theatre

I hadn’t seen any of these, the first two being rarities and the last a non-standard version of the well-known Shojo. The themes today seemed to be autumn and alcohol.

Matsumushi (The Pine Cricket): A man relates to a sake seller that the sound of crickets reminds him of a story in which a youth lost a dear friend who, lured away during their stroll by the chirping of crickets, died suddenly in the fields. The youth could not get over the loss as they had pledged to die together, hinting at a relationship closer than just a casual friendship. It turns out that the man relating the story is himself the ghost of that youth and has taken his grief into the next world. The sake seller says a prayer for him, and the ghost reemerges to dance in memory of his friend.

The story strongly implies a same-sex love affair, which is not unusual either in history or classical Japanese theater. The youth in question appears initially with a random guy to attend a drinking party, which dilutes the effect somewhat as the latter just stands there uselessly while the lead talks with the sake seller. But the imagery overall is beautiful, especially the ending in which only the voices of the insects remain. The interesting setup, in which the sake seller is praying for a man who is himself praying for a friend, implies that the man cannot attain Buddhahood until he relinquishes his grief. I expected a happy ending once prayers were invoked for him, but that didn’t feature in the text. I wonder if we’re supposed to assume that; it appears incomplete. Still, its sentiments are easy to follow, and the sincerity of the man’s feelings for his lover is moving. A lovely show.

Ukifune: A rare piece, drawn from The Tale of Genji. The text apparently assumes a knowledge of the book even as its veers from it in significant ways, and its dense text is said to be challenging. The story on its own seems simple enough: a passing priest encounters a woman on a boat (floating boat = ukifune) on the Uji River. She tells him about a woman in the area named Ukifune who was loved by two noblemen (named Kaoru and Niou, i.e., fragrance and smell – wonder what that’s about), but, finding the pressure unbearable, tried to drown herself. She was saved by a priest (confusingly, not the same one she’s speaking to here) but later died. It turns out unsurprisingly that she is the ghost of that woman. The priest prays for her after hearing her story, allowing her soul to go to heaven.

I’m not sure why the author rescues the woman only to have her die anyway at some unspecified point; the storyline would have been much cleaner if she had drowned in the first place, making clearer the theme of redemption through Buddhist prayer. It also would have eliminated the need for two priests. That might have had something to do with the novel, but it unnecessarily complicates matters here. While the dance itself was lively, the first half dragged quite a bit. I see why this isn’t revived often.

Midare: This turned out to be a non-standard version of the classic Shojo that has actually become more popular than the original (it’s sometimes known as Shojo Midare). “Midare”, which normally means disturbed or wild, refers in Noh to a type of dance with irregular beats and distinctive movements.

The show is set in China along the Yangtze River. A sake seller notes that one of his most frequent and hard-drinking customers never gets drunk. He discovers that this is a shojo, a sea creature with an unquenchable love of alcohol. The creature, emerging in a strikingly colorful outfit with a bright red mane, dances joyously and presents the seller with a crock of liquor that never runs dry.

This is more a celebratory piece than a coherent narrative, the bare story existing only to set up the dance. That leaves the seller with little to do but sit motionlessly throughout the entire dance, which must be frustrating. But that dance is light and fun, and the comical shojo is one of the more memorable characters in Noh theater. A very enjoyable work.